CLW sees this story posted today, about the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office bringing the noted “contingency fee” law firm Sher Edling on board its climate lawsuit against Exxon Mobil. A few days earlier, in Energy Policy Advocates v. Healey, a Suffolk County Superior Court ordered the MA AG to answer interrogatories seeking details of the emails pertaining to the origins of this suit, described in this privilege log. For four years the Office has resisted letting even the most basic of such details slip from its clutches.
Key documents preceding this development can be found here, here and here.
This comes on the heels of the group EPA largely prevailing in getting records unsealed in its first, successful suit to obtain the record of Healey’s pursuit of several Michael Bloomberg-funded lawyers to help with this suit and other matters to, among other things and in her application’s words, “ensur[e] Massachusetts and neighboring states meet the long-term commitments set forth…in the Paris Agreement.”
The complaint in this second case, found here, tells the tale of what the records document, including how a tort lawyer and green group recruited the MA AG to file this suit.
UPDATE: Per a recent court order, Energy Policy Advocates’ April 16, 2024 Questions about this Index, and the AG’s Office withholding as privileged, e.g., email from a progressive law professor, can be found here.